Removing a site from Google's index
-
We have a site we'd like to have pulled from Google's index. Back in late June, we disallowed robot access to the site through the robots.txt file and added a robots meta tag with "no index,no follow" commands. The expectation was that Google would eventually crawl the site and remove it from the index in response to those tags. The problem is that Google hasn't come back to crawl the site since late May. Is there a way to speed up this process and communicate to Google that we want the entire site out of the index, or do we just have to wait until it's eventually crawled again?
-
ok. Not abundantly clear upon first reading. Thank you for your help.
-
Thank you for pointing that out Arlene. I do see it now.
The statement before that line is of key importance for an accurate quote. "If you own the site, you can verify your ownership in Webmaster Tools and use the verified URL removal tool to remove an entire directory from Google's search results."
It could be worded better but what they are saying is AFTER your site has already been removed from Google's index via the URL removal tool THEN you can block it with robots.txt. The URL removal tool will remove the pages and keep them out of the index for 90 days. That's when changing the robots.txt file can help.
-
"Note: To ensure your directory or site is permanently removed, you should use robots.txt to block crawler access to the directory (or, if you’re removing a site, to your whole site)."
The above is a quote from the page. You have to expand the section I referenced in my last comment. Just re-posting google's own words.
-
I thought you were offering a quote from the page. It seems that is your summarization. I apologize for my misunderstanding.
I can see how you can make that conclusion but it not accurate. Robots.txt does not ensure a page wont get indexed. I always recommend use of the noindex tag which should be 100% effective for the major search engines.
-
Go here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=164734
Then expand the option down below that says: "<a class="zippy zippy-track zippy-collapse" name="RemoveDirectory">I want to remove an entire site or the contents of a directory from search results"</a>
They basically instruct you to block all robots in the robots.txt file, then request removal of your site. Once it's removed, the robots file will keep it from getting back into the index. They also recommend putting a "noindex" meta tag on each page to ensure nothing will get picked up. I think we have it taken care of at this point. We'll see
-
Arlene, I checked the link you offered but I could not locate the quote you offered anywhere on the page. I am sure it is referring to a different context. Using robots.txt as a blocking tool is fine BEFORE a site or page is indexed, but not after.
-
I used the removal tool and just entered a "/" which put in a request to have everything in all of my site's directories pulled from the index. And I have left "noindex" tags in place on every page. Hopefully this will get it done.
Thanks for your comments guys!
-
We blocked robots from accessing the site because Google told us to. This is straight from the webmaster tools help section:
Note: To ensure your directory or site is permanently removed, you should use robots.txt to block crawler access to the directory (or, if you’re removing a site, to your whole site).
-
I have webmaster tools setup, but I don't see an option to remove the whole site. There is a URL removal tool, but there are over 700 pages I want pulled out of the index. Is there an option in webmaster tools to have the whole site pulled from the index?
-
Actually, since you have access to the site, you can leave the robots.txt at disallowed -- if you go into Google Webmaster Tools, verify your site, and request removal of your entire site. Let me know if you'd like a link on this with more information. This will involve adding an html file or meta tag to your site to verify you have ownership.
-
Thank you. Didn't realize we were shooting ourselves in the foot.
-
Hi Arlene.
The problem is that when you blocked the site with robots.txt, you are preventing Google from re-crawling your site so they cannot see the noindex tag. If you have properly placed the noindex tag on all the pages in your site, then modify your robots.txt file to allow Google to see your site. Once that happens Google will begin crawling your site and then be able to deindex your pages.
The only other suggestion is to submit a sitemap and/or remove the "nofollow" tag. With the nofollow tag on all your pages, Google may visit your site for a single page at a time since you are telling the crawler not to follow any links it finds. You are blocking it's normal discovery of your site.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
No Longer Indexed in Google (Says Redirected)
Just recently my page, http:/www./waikoloavacationrentals.com/mauna-lani-terrace, was no longer indexed by google. The sub pages from it still are. I have not done anything sketchy with the page. When I went into the google fetch it says that it is redirected. Any ideas what is this all about? Here is what it says for the fetch: Http/1.1 301 moved permanently
Technical SEO | | RobDalton
Server: nginx
Date: Tue, 07 Mar 2017 00:43:26GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 178
Connection: keep-alive
Keep-Alive: timeout=20
Location: http://waikoloavacationrentals.com/mauna-lani-terrace <title>301 moved permanently</title> <center> 301 moved permanently </center> <center>nginx</center>0 -
How to fix Google index after fixing site infected with malware.
Hi All Upgraded a Joomla site for a customer a couple of months ago that was infected with malware (it wasn't flagged as infected by google). Site is fine now but still noticing search queries for "cheap adobe" etc with links to http://domain.com/index.php?vc=201&Cheap_Adobe_Acrobat_xi in web master tools (about 50 in total). These url's redirect back to home page and seem to be remaining in the index (I think Joomla is doing this automatically) Firstly, what sort of effect would these be having on on their rankings? Would they be seen by google as duplicate content for the homepage (moz doesn't report them as such as there are no internal links). Secondly what's my best plan of attack to fix them. Should I setup 404's for them and then submit them to google? Will resubmitting the site to the index fix things? Would appreciate any advice or suggestions on the ramifications of this and how I should fix it. Regards, Ian
Technical SEO | | iragless0 -
Need advice for new site's structure
Hi everyone, I need to update the structure of my site www.chedonna.it Basicly I've two main problems: 1. I've 61.000 index tag (more with no post)2. The category of my site are noindex I thought to fix my problem making the category index and the tag noindex, but I'm not sure if this is the best solution because I've a great number of tag idexed by Google for a long time. Mybe it is correct just to make the category index and linking it from the post and leave the tag index. Could you please let me know what's your opinion? Regards.
Technical SEO | | salvyy0 -
How to Let Google Know I am a new Site Owner and to Remove or De-value all backlinks?
I am looking to buy a new domain for a brand. Problem is the domain has was registered in 1996 and has around 6k backlinks (according to ahrefs) that I need removed as the old content will have no relevance to my new site. Should I just disavow all of them? Is there anything "special" I can do to let Google know that it will be new site owner/content and to remove/discount the current links?
Technical SEO | | RichardSEO0 -
Web page is showing up on Google but doesn't show when it was cached, so is it indexed?
Hey everyone So I created a new page on a WordPress website, it was live for a few hours till I changed my mind & switched it back to a draft. Just out of curiosity I did the Site:www.example.com/Example search on Google to see if it had been indexed & apparently it had but when I click on cached to see what time it got indexed at exactly it's showing me an error. So does this mean it is indexed or not?
Technical SEO | | conversiontactics0 -
Does a CMS inhibit a site's crawlability?
I smell baloney but I could use a little backup from the community! My client was recently told by an SEO that search engines have a hard time getting to their site because using a CMS (like WordPress) doesn't allow "direct access to the html". Here is what they emailed my client: "Word Press (like your site is built with) and other similar “do it yourself” web builder programs and websites are not good for search engine optimization since they do not allow direct access to the HTML. Direct HTML access is needed to input important items to enhance your websites search engine visibility, performance and creditability in order to gain higher search engine rankings." Bots are blind to CMSs and html is html, correct? What do you think about the information given by the other SEO?
Technical SEO | | Adpearance0 -
Javascript to manipulate Google's bounce rate and time on site?
I was referred to this "awesome" solution to high bounce rates. It is suppose to "fix" bounce rates and lower them through this simple script. When the bounce rate goes way down then rankings dramatically increase (interesting study but not my question). I don't know javascript but simply adding a script to the footer and watch everything fall into place seems a bit iffy to me. Can someone with experience in JS help me by explaining what this script does? I think it manipulates the reporting it does to GA but I'm not sure. It was supposed to be placed in the footer of the page and then sit back and watch the dollars fly in. 🙂
Technical SEO | | BenRWoodard1 -
Remove Site from Google
How can I get my website out of google? I want all pages completely gone. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | tylerfraser0